Then, someone told me Iqbal wrote "Saare Jahaan Se Accha" in 1904, but later he decided to migrate to Pakistan. That intrigued me. This poet in this song talks about how India is the best country in the world and how any religion does not preach hatred. Yet, he chooses to leave India and live in the Islamic republic Pakistan, which was formed on the basis of religion. I got curious and read up a bit on Iqbal, who is still widely recognized and regarded in India. And whose patriotic song is sung at practically every government function in India. Here is what I found.
Change of Heart
A few years after writing "Saare Jahaan Se Accha," Iqbal wrote another song that called "Taraana-e-Milli." This was based on the same "Saare Jahaan Se Accha," but it represented a dramatic turn in Iqbal's thinking. It was almost as if he disowned the thoughts behind his earlier song.
In Saare Jahan Se Achcha Iqbal says:
Mażhab nahīñ sikhātā āapas meiñ bair rakhnāhindī haiñ ham, vatan hai hindostāñ hamārā
or,
Religion does not teach us divide us, We are Indians (Hindi) , our homeland is India (Hindustan)
In Tarana-e-Milli he says:
Chīn-o-arab hamārā, hindostān hamār āmuslim hain ham, vatan hai sārā jahān hamārā
or,
China and the Arab lands are ours, India is ours, We are Muslims, the whole world is our homeland.
From talking about secularism in 1905, to talking about Islam owning the world, Iqbal's outlook had significantly changed. He had rejected India and India's dreams of forming a secular republic. He now said that national identity does not matter to Muslims. And that all Muslims across the world are a single nation, whose leader is the Muslim prophet.
Hw went on to fight against the notion of a secular India and to create a separate state based on the Islamic ideology.
Some more facts
- Iqbal became a prominent leader of the All India Muslim League, the party that launched a vitriolic anti-India, anti-secular campaign and led to the creation of the Islamic republic of Pakistan.
- He was probably the first politician to articulate what would become known as the Two-Nation Theory, which stated that Muslims and Hindus could not live together and that Muslims were a separate state. This was probably the first separatist movement in India.
In his address to the India Muslim League in 1920, he encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims" - Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of the state.
- He is officially recognized as the national poet of Pakistan.
So why do we still sing Saare Jahaan se Accha
It makes me wonder why we as Indians would want to sing a song written by someone who rejected the notion of India. The notion of a secular state where all religions can co-exist. A notion that formed the basis of the India republic. Any self-respecting nation would have disowned this song. But we did not.
Way back in 1929, when Iqbal visited the University of Mysore, a professor said “Let the Muslims proclaim a million times that Iqbal is theirs, but let me declare, Iqbal belongs to we all and confining Iqbal to a particular religion or community is injustice to this great poet himself.”
Fact is, the poet had by then clearly aligned himself to to his religion and had made his feelings about Hindus very clear. So why would the professor still want to appease him?
Perhaps both stem from our collective desire to try to prove to the world that we are truly "secular" and above differences of religion and country. Sometimes we take this desire to prove ourselves so far that we stop to look and care about whether anyone is even listening. In this case, Iqbal must had had a good laugh at the profesor's naivete. And must have wondered why the professor wanted to cling on to Iqbal when Iqbal's stated separatist ideology was clearly anti-India and anti-Hindu.
Perhaps it is our culture that says if we try to be very nice to someone, they might change their heart and be nice to us. Alas, that is a simplistic view and far from reality. We have experienced this the hard way several times, but I cannot say we have learnt from ou history.
I now know that Saare Jahaan Se Accha was written by someone who did not believe in India and who caused the loss of millions of lives because he thought his religion should rule the world. As a self-respecting Indian, I will reject Iqbal's song. And will urge you to do the same.
